Using ASP and Access together (Access 2003)

I am just starting a new project, and am thinking about a broad design question.

The job is for a university dept with about 50 staff. All of these staff will need access to the db, but most will need to use just two forms, and will only see data about themselves. A small group of staff will have use of the full db, which I expect to eventually become moderately complex.

For the staff needing limited access, I could develop a simple front end, or use ASP to provide access to the db via a web browser. The second solution looks attractive as I avoid all the questions of installing and maintaining the front end on a lot of machines etc. Staff could also access the db from any machine, or fom home.

Do you run into problems if you a backend db being accessed simultaneously by both an Access frontend by some users, and ASP for other users?

I have never tried to do both at the same time, but I think I remember something about locking conflicts.

Re: Using ASP and Access together (Access 2003)

There have been reports of that sort, but our experience with a SQL Server back-end has worked well. I think the issue may also relate to what version of ADO is being used by the .ASP scripts - in any event it is fairly easy to test and find out whether there is a problem. We also had a recent thread along similar lines starting with <post#=460419>post 460419</post#> - not clear what technology was being used there, and we haven't gotten any additional feedback.

Re: Using ASP and Access together (Access 2003)

I *have* experienced problems getting Access to work with an ASP page when the db is opened directly -- that is to say, if you have the Access file open, the connect from ASP fails. I don't know if the same thing would happen if you do a front end/back end Access app and set the ASP code to operate on the backend Access file. That might work. SQL Server, since it is a client/server db, doesn't interfere with connect attempts via ASP/web when you have the db or tables open. You can even have a table open to make a design change and the web app still hums along.... Anyway, my <img src=/S/2cents.gif border=0 alt=2cents width=15 height=15> is, if you want the db available simultaneously via ASP and another user opening the db directly, you will need to split the access into front end/back end files at the least.

Re: Using ASP and Access together (Access 2003)

I have just done a rudimentary test of this without encountering problems, so I will take it further.

Using IIS on my laptop, I was able to open an ASP webpage with the same db open in Access. It happily let me add records, search for existing records etc.

It worked whether I used a split design or not. It worked with a form open, it worked with the table open. The only time it didn't work was when I had the table open in design view (and I didn't expect that to to work.)